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Canadian International Air Show

As Toronto continues to welcome more and more residents to downtown high-rises and neighbourhoods the hazards and inconveniences of the Canadian International Air Show mount exponentially – to which the show responds, trumpeting the economic benefits. Note the sponsors.

It is one thing to honour grandfathers and great-grandfathers with fly-pasts of World War II planes, be it on Labour Day weekend or Remembrance Day; it is quite another for modern-day supersonic-jet-fighters to scream over the city at break-neck speeds – first in practice, earlier in the week, and then during the CNE air shows themselves (so that’s Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Sunday and Monday).

This is not a downtown, street-level festival. This is a lakeside exhibition with necks craned skyward and over the water. However to set up the manoeuvres, and then to double-back to base, these pilots are roaring across the downtown – a multi-use, high-density residential part of the city.

It is one thing to try and console small children and pets, who can’t possibly understand what these terrifying sounds are, but imagine what it must be like for survivors of present-day conflicts where these war machines have traumatized so many.

Please – be done with this testosterone-fuelled militarism or move it somewhere with a smaller population and an even more welcoming audience.

I hope that this is an early agenda item for all levels of government in the fall. It will certainly be a multi-level election issue!

P.S. I think NOW’s headline summed it up well:

Air Show porn
IN A CITY WHERE SMOKERS ARE PARIAHS, CNE FLIGHT OF FANCY STILL ISN’T SEEN AS ANTI-SOCIAL